It took me a while, but part two is finally here! There will probably be more like four parts in total, as opposed to three, whoops.
When Rosa next finds Gina and her companions, it's in 15th century Prague. Rosa can't be bothered changing into less anachronistic clothing, mostly because she's too fucking livid about being paralysed on the floor of her TARDIS for an hour. She marches right out of the doors in her coat and tunic to find the Time Lady menace who is determined to make her life difficult.
"Well well well, look who it is," says Charles, who spots her first, and strides up to her, crossing his arms over her chest. "You haven't even bothered to dress up. Disappointing."
"I'm sorry, what gave you the impression that you could talk to me?" Rosa asks, narrowing her eyes at him before walking around him and making a beeline for Gina, who is busy carefully stealing a necklace from a stall.
"Oh hey, Rosa, there you are! I was starting to think you weren't coming!" Gina calls, grinning.
"Don't look happy to see me," Rosa says as she gets closer, glowering, "it's too weird."
"Sorry, babe, I don't take orders," Gina whispers in her ear, before twirling around and heading off to the bread stall that Amy and Jake are at.
Rosa ignores the dumb shiver down her spine and storms after her, this time grabbing her by the arm so that she can yank her around to look at her.
"Stop screwing around," she says. "You know I'll find a way to take you in eventually. I could stun you and your little friends and take all of you back to Gallifrey right now. Stop delaying the inevitable."
"Delaying the inevitable? That's called living, Rosa, you should try it sometime," Gina says without batting an eyelash, wrenching her arm out of Rosa's grip with impressive strength. "And, uh, you still can't stun us. Because we're still surrounded by people. Better luck next time, gorgeous. Go find someone else to bore."
Rose stares at her, livid, but a beeping in her pocket stops her from ripping Gina's head off or doing anything similar. The beeping must be from her communication pad, and so Rosa ducks into the nearest little alleyway to check on it.
My office. Check in. Now.
Rosa furiously taps a reply. Busy.
Now.
Rosa can't believe this. She debates ignoring the message, but knows she can't, and storms out of the alleyway back in the direction of her TARDIS.
"Aw, leaving so soon?" Gina calls, cackling. "Tell old Holt I say hi!"
Rosa can't be sure if she's joking or not, but ignores her and heads into her ship, plotting a course for Gallifrey and resisting the urge to knock over the vase of lemons that serve as the console room's main decoration.
She fails, and now there are lemons everywhere.
Grumbling under her breath, she barely refrains from snapping at the person on the other end of the channel when they ask for her identification and clearance codes to let her through Gallifrey's transduction barriers.
Once through and landed, Rosa strides out of the TARDIS and through the many corridors and elevators, ignoring all those around her as she makes her way to the CIA headquarters and gives her clearance codes to get inside.
"I was with her, I had her in my sights, and you call me back now?!" Rosa demands, enraged, only to stop short at the sight of another person in Holt's office. Leaning over to peer at one of the screens, a fair haired man of similar physical age to Holt looks up at her and raises his eyebrows.
"Ah. Agent Rosadiazana, I take it?"
"Yes," Rosa says, uncomfortably, wondering if she should feel embarrassed about her behaviour. "And you are?"
"Agent, this is my husband, Professor Kevner, of the Academy's literature department," Holt tells her.
"I teach xenoliterature, generally," Kevner adds. "Good to make your acquaintance, Rosa, I've heard a lot about you."
Rosa remembers now. She's not really one to take much interest in people's personal lives, but she knows if only just because of the sheer amount of tedious gossip about Holtmond and Kevner that she's had to shut out over the decades.
They married for love. It's practically unheard of in Gallifreyan society. Truly strange. Not everyone has an issue with it - Rosa could hardly care less - but old-fashioned types think marriage should be for political alliance between Houses and nothing else. If she is recalling right, Kevner's House, Mirraflex, held great disdain for Holt's house, Arpexia, and practically forbad the match. But the two of them had gotten married anyway. Quite the scandal.
Rosa, now looking at them, with the way that Holt seems a bit more relaxed just for Kevner's presence, finds herself quite impressed by them.
"Good to make your acquaintance too," Rosa says, nodding at Kevner. What she doesn't say is, but what the hell are you doing here?
"Kevner and I both taught Ginettina back when she was in the Academy and I was the professor of xenocriminology," Holt says, apparently reading her face well.
Rose blinks. "You taught her? You didn't think to mention that before?"
"It didn't seem relevant, until it became more apparent that she's proving a truly elusive figure to catch, hence why I asked Kevner to lend his expertise as well. Can you explain the exact difficulties you are having when it comes to apprehending her?"
Rosa sighs, both embarrassed and annoyed. "It's just… she's a lot cleverer than she looks, okay? And sneaky. She keeps landing in public places where I can't afford to make a scene by trying to use force. And those humans of hers are loyal to her to a fault, which really doesn't help."
"Humans, from what I gather, are prone to the kind of loyalty that borders on sheer stupidity," Kevner says airily.
"Definitely," Rosa agrees. "They all think she's just some awesome leader figure taking them on whatever kind of trips they want. They have no idea what they've gotten into."
"That's… troubling."
"Tell me about it." Rosa regards them both carefully. "So, what can you two tell me that will help me bring her in?"
"She's first and foremost an artist, a performer," Holtmond tells her. "She loves to show off, to have an audience."
"She's a genius," Kevner adds, making Rosa lift an eyebrow at him. "She does a good job of hiding it, but she is. But more important is why she hides it - she does it so that people underestimate her, which they do, given all her frivolity. That's why she's been difficult to keep in line all her life, and impossible to catch now."
"Okay, got it, she's a manipulative genius who loves to show off. Anything else?" Rosa asks.
Holt sighs. "Only that… she may seem as though she cares as little for other people as she does for rules. But it isn't the case. Observe her with her… human friends." He makes a face. "I imagine she might surprise you."
Rosa frowns. "Sure, whatever."
"I expect you to make some progress soon, Agent," Holt tells her. "She may be slippery, but you're one of the best agents I've ever trained, and I do believe this is within your ability. But we don't have much time left before her antics are going to become public knowledge, and that will complicate things. I will use my last resort if I have to."
Kevner looks at Holt with surprise. "You'd pull him off desk duty for this?"
"I might not have a choice," Holt says. He looks at Rosa. "Let's hope we can avoid that. You're dismissed, Agent. Bring me my ex-pupil as soon as you can."
"Yes, Coordinator." She hesitates in the doorway on her way out. "I guess this explains why she told me to tell you she says hi."
Holt's face is impossible to read, and so is Kevner's when they glance at each other.
"Good luck, Agent," is all he says.
Gina's next stop is a theme park on the moon in the 64th century. Rosa's TARDIS disguises herself as an unstaffed popcorn booth, and when she has stepped out from behind it, she sees Gina and the others in line for a rollercoaster.
"Oh, hey Rosa!" Gina calls. "You like rollercoasters?"
Rosa has never been on a rollercoaster. She's not entirely sure she understands the point of a rollercoaster. She isn't currently interested in finding out anything more about them as a concept.
"No," she says as she approaches the side of the queue line.
"Lame," Gina replies. "You should join us. You can cut, it's all good."
"No, it's not," someone from behind her says, at the exact same time that Amy voices an identical protest.
Gina turns around and stares at the stranger with a kind of genuine bewilderment that is also laced with disdain. "I'm sorry, did I ask? No. Didn't think so." She turns back around. "Also, Amy, I literally never asked for your opinion about rule breaking and never will. Got it?"
Amy opens her mouth to protest only for Gina to put her finger over her lips as she turns to look at Rosa again.
"Awesome, glad we had this talk."
Amy pouts while Jake chuckles at her dismay.
"Seriously, Rosa, it'll be fun, come on," Gina tries again.
"I'll pass," Rosa says flatly.
"You are the worst killjoy," Gina complains. "Seriously, can't you just have fun, for once?"
"I have fun," Rosa replies. It's not strictly true, but that isn't any of Gina's business. "Just not with criminals I'm meant to be arresting." The person behind Gina who had interrupted is now eyeing Gina with wariness.
"Fine, be like that," Gina says with a groan.
"Wait, so we're still going on the rollercoaster, right?" Jake asks. "Because if you back out of this now, I will literally make you buy me twenty hotdogs to make up for it."
"Calm down, Jakey boy, we're still going on the rollercoaster," Gina tells him, clapping him on the shoulder. "I imagine Agent Hot But Boring Pants will be right here when we come out."
"Suppose I will," Rosa says, resisting the urge to sigh and instead crossing her arms to make herself seem less annoyed by the whole thing and more like she has a patience and determination of steel. The latter half is true, so it's easy enough to pull off.
Rosa walks off to explore her surroundings as the line starts moving, now that she has a bit of time before their return. She spots a park map and makes her way over to it, memorising it in case she needs to know the layout, should Gina and the others try and make a break for it or anything of the sort (although, that seems unlikely).
Memorising the map only takes a few seconds, of course, and once she's done she heads for a nearby bench and sits down to wait.
It's exactly seventeen minutes and thirty four seconds until she spots Gina and her humans emerging from the ride exit and heading her way. Not only are they actually still here, but Gina looks pleased to see here there. It's grating, and confusing.
"You didn't even try to get away," Rosa says, frowning at her.
"What would be the point?" Gina asks, with a shrug. "Come on, Jake wants candyfloss."
"And I care why?"
"Well, we're going to be going to the candyfloss stall, and since you're set on following me around, that means you're coming too, am I right?" Gina says, and Rosa grits her teeth because, of course, she is right.
They walk to the candyfloss stall, buy said candyfloss, and that's how Rosa ends up with a stick of spun sugar in her hand without making any expression of interest in such a thing.
"I did not ask for this," Rosa says to Gina when it is handed to her, frowning at the pink fluff and feeling oddly offended by its existence.
"I get the feeling you wouldn't ask for a bandage or plasma pack if you were bleeding out, so catch me not caring," Gina retorts. "Just shut up and eat the candy, Agent. You might even enjoy it."
Rosa is torn between not wanting to speak to her, and not wanting to follow any orders given to her by this annoying renegade, which leaves her irritated and unable to do much more than grumble and try tiny bits of the candyfloss.
It sticks to her teeth and she can taste that it truly is nothing but sugar and artificial colouring, but as much as she hates to admit it, even just to herself, there's something strangely pleasing about it - about how it dissolves on her tongue.
"See, not so bad, right?" Gina asks.
"Guess not," Rosa admits, without really meaning to.
"See? I take you to all the best places."
"You're not taking me anywhere, I'm chasing you, remember?"
"I know," Gina says, with too much enjoyment and a wide smirk. "That's why I'm playing so hard to get, remember? But I figured I could let you get a second date. First, Earth and ice cream, now theme park and candyfloss. You're welcome."
"A date?" Rosa is fairly sure that's what humans call instances of courting each other romantically. "This is… not a date. This is a federal pursuit."
"Yeah, but not quite in the way that you think," Gina replies, smirk still on her lips.
They've fallen behind the others again - Jake and Amy have taken up some kind of challenge to do with a game involving throwing balls at stacks of bottles. It seems primitive and pointless to Rosa, but then Time Lords have never been ones to care much about physical prowess, and she knows that makes them a minority in that particular regard.
"They're so cute when they care about dumb stuff like this," Gina says, tilting her head a little and smile. "Though don't ever tell them I said that, or I'll make that hot ass of yours regenerate, on principle."
"Please don't make any comments about this body of mine ever again, complimentary or otherwise."
"Why not? Afraid you might like it?"
"No, creeped out because you're a lunatic criminal mastermind." Rosa winces as soon as the final word leaves her mouth, and the look of surprise on Gina's face instantly gives way to an unbearable smugness.
"Mastermind, huh?" Gina repeats, almost thoughtfully. "You're singing a pretty different tune there, Rosa. And I can't imagine Holt would use that particular word, so… Kevner. Kevner's involved, now? Wow, you guys are getting kind of desperate, huh? That's embarrassing for you."
"Shut up," Rosa growls, grabbing Gina and slamming her into the edge of the nearest stall.
Gina's eyes flash a darker shade. "Damn, you're strong, Agent. That was some serious manhandling - I shouldn't like that. Kinda do. Like, a lot. Probably too much."
"Shut up!"
"Don't you dare tell me to shut up," Gina says, affronted, properly scowling at her for the first time.
Rosa, on some deep, petty level, is relieved to have finally been able to piss her off after all the smiles and the laughter and the jokes.
"You don't get to run around and cause serious problems and jeopardise things that are crucial to the continuation of the fabric of reality and then keep acting like it's some kind of game," Rosa says, fuming, "Maybe it is for you, but the rest of us are getting serious heat over this. Holt was your teacher, right? You really think the President isn't going to think he's totally incompetent if he can't catch one renegade? You think he's going to keep his job? He's by far the best person for the job, and the only one I'd ever trust to do it with any kind of moral compass. And if he loses it because of you, I will never stop coming for you, I will never let you get a moment of rest, until I've made you pay."
"Don't blame me for your incompetency, Agent," Gina snaps, pushing out of her grip with surprising strength. "Holt is his own, grown person. It isn't my responsibility to save his ass if he's in hot water. You want to save him? Do better, it's as simple as that. It's not my job to make it easier for you, because I don't owe him anything, and I definitely don't owe you."
Rosa stares at her, having not quite expected the push back. She recovers a moment later, and grabs Gina's arm, reaching for her stun gun with her other hand - only to meet empty air.
"Looking for this?" Amy's voice says in her ear, as the barrel of the gun presses against her back.
"Oh for - not again-"
"Yes again, Rosa," Gina says. "Because they're my companions, they're my friends, as gross as that might sound-"
"Slightly hurtful," Jake mutters from nearby.
"And I love them-"
"Okay, that's better-"
"Which is even weirder and grosser, I know-"
"Aaand there it is again."
"But it's actually one of the best things ever," Gina finishes, spreading her hands in a kind of shrug, even though her air of casual caring isn't holding up when it's obvious how aggravated she still is from Rosa's attack. "They might be dumb humans, but they're my dumb humans, and they're more of a match for you than you think. Santiago, go for your life."
"Could have done without the calling us dumb, twice," Amy says, "but it was kind of a sweet sentiment, so I'll take what I can get."
"Yeah, great, just shoot her already so we can go," Gina says impatiently.
Everything goes black as Amy fires the gun point blank.
Rosa wakes up to a couple of concerned theme park goers who had rushed to her aid after seeing her go down and her assailants make a break for it. She brushes them off with annoyance and hurries back to her TARDIS, to track down Gina and her companions.
They must have taken the stun gun. Although not the only one she had, it's irritating because it means that's another advantage in their column.
She's not sure how worried about Holt's position she actually is, but it had still been a worthwhile attempt to see whether she could appeal to the better nature Holt still seems to think that Gina possesses.
Rosa isn't convinced.
Gina is nothing but a selfish troublemaker who clearly doesn't give a damn about what repercussions her actions might have on anything or anyone else. And Rosa is going to take her down.
After tracing Gina's biodata to a new planet, one that doesn't have an official name and is just listed as Planet 34 in the Horsehead Nebula, Rosa steels herself for the next encounter with the most difficult foe she's ever faced (well, except for the one Dalek she's ever run into, but comparing Gina to the literal embodiment of evil in the universe is too harsh for even Rosa).
She grabs her backup stun gun and prepares it for use as she heads for the door. Nothing will go wrong this time. She won't let it.
She is going to take the stun gun, and use it, on all of them, and lug them all into her TARDIS two at a time, if that's what it takes. No more time for being a coward and caring what the locals think. They're all idiotic and close minded people who will pretend they never saw anything for their own peace of mind, and if not, then she has access to memory altering drugs, and can deal with it later.
Rosa steps out of the TARDIS into the corridor of what looks to be some kind of palace, if the fancy carpet and royal portraits and woven tapestries are any kind of indicator. Weirdly, royals across the universe often go for the same kind of decorations - probably an ego thing.
After discerning that the corridor is empty and it doesn't sound like anybody is coming, Rosa closes her eyes and tries to sense Gina's presence nearby. Sure enough, she feels that familiar spark of another Time Lord mind, and heads towards it.
Unfortunately, a bolted door of thick hardwood blocks her path. Annoyingly, or rather, ironically, it's too primitive for any technology of Rosa's to be any good at getting through it. She's going to have to find something more straightforward, like a highly powered torch or acid, in order to get through.
She heads back to the TARDIS, only to run right into a guard who comes into the hallway from one of the nearby passages.
"Hey! Intruder!" he shouts, before Rosa is able to whack him over the head with enough force to knock him out.
She stuns each of the guards as they appear, but she knows the moment she goes inside the TARDIS, she's going to be in trouble. They're on the lookout for anomalies, now, and so they'll pick that the new cupboard in the hallway is out of place and humming with energy. Or at least see her walk out of it if she tries to leave it again.
Better to run, and come back. Rosa heads down the nearest flight of stairs, stunning the last guard to try and follow her before she manages to lose them. She keeps going down, around and around the spiral stairs until she reaches the bottom and comes out into a dank dungeon.
"Urgh," she says, kicking at a nearby stool at how things had gone wrong. Gina was somewhere half a dozen floors up, and she'd run away instead of standing her ground.
But she wasn't supposed to confront those of other civilisations, if it could be avoided, and Holtmond's voice was always in the back of her head in these kinds of scenarios, so she begrudgingly does the smart thing instead of fighting them all, like she wants to so badly.
In the meantime, before she heads back upstairs, she takes a deep breath and casts her gaze around the dungeon.
"There's gotta be an axe around here somewhere," Rosa mutters, "what kind of dungeon doesn't have an axe?"
"Rosa?"
Hearing her name makes her whirl around, and she sees Amy standing in one of the cells, fingers curled around the bars as she stares at Rosa with desperate relief.
"Oh my god, it's really you," Amy says, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm so glad you're here. We need your help."
"My help?" Rosa asks, staring at her. "You shot me."
"It was a stun gun!"
"Yeah, and it pissed me off. Your point?"
"Rosa, please, Jake's hurt," Amy pleads, and Rosa glances behind her to where Charles has Jake cradled in his lap, a hand pressing on a bleeding wound in Jake's side. "It's… it's bad. If he doesn't get help soon-"
"Where's Gina?" Rosa interrupts. "Shouldn't she be helping you? You're her little...pets, you're her responsibility-"
"We're not pets, we're companions," Charles tries to say.
"Same difference."
"They took her," Amy says urgently, ignoring their debate, "That's why we're here in the first place, Gina offended the king, and so he locked her up, so he could execute her in front of all his subjects."
"Seems kind of overkill," Rosa replies, before making a face. "Then again, if anyone could inspire that by offending anyone, she probably could."
Amy looks at her with distress. "He said they need a good execution once in a while to keep morale up!"
The horror in her voice is almost amusing, like a general taking pleasure in an execution is the most barbaric thing she can think of. Rosa remembers when she had been fresh out of the Academy and similarly inexperienced with the rougher ways of the universe.
"Okay, makes enough sense, but how does that equal him getting hurt?"
"The guards were being awful, and Jake tried to stand up to them, and defend us," Charles says mournfully. "He was so brave."
Jake shifts slightly, murmuring something indiscernible, and leans into Charles' touch. It looks like he's lost a lot of blood - or what Rosa is assuming is a lot for a human, anyway, though who knows? By how far gone he looks to be, she's going to assume it's enough to be worried about.
Huh. She actually is slightly worried about him. That's bizarre on several levels, but a problem for another time.
"Please, Rosa, I know things have been crazy between us, but this is literally a matter of life and death, whatever it is between you and Gina, please, can it wait?" Amy asks, tears welling up in her eyes. "You're the closest thing we have to a friend here, and we need whatever we can get-"
"Okay, okay, god, I'll help, just please don't start crying," Rosa says, disgusted. "Who has the keys to the cell?"
"The guard just put them up on the wall, over there," Amy says, pointing, "I guess he wasn't that worried about anyone trying to rescue us."
Rosa fetches the keys and lets them out, only to find herself being hugged by a nearly hysterical Amy.
"Okay, you're going to let go of me in the next two seconds or I'm locking you back in that cell," Rosa says stiffly, and Amy stiffens and jumps away, eyes wide like a startled rabbit.
Charles, meanwhile, had hauled Jake up, but seems to be struggling with his weight.
"Oh, for-" Rosa approaches them and hoists Jake onto her shoulders, with only marginal effort. He's not particularly light, but Time Lords are stronger than they look, and she can handle it.
"Wow," Charles says, awed. "You're… amazing."
Rosa eyes him weirdly. "Please stop looking at me like that."
"Sorry," Charles says, without stopping. Amy looks similarly impressed, but wisely says nothing about it. She looks too worried to be paying compliments.
"Urgh." Rosa moves out of the cell and stops in the dungeon doorway, turning back to look at them, only just avoiding whacking Jake's head against the stone as she does so. "Okay, monkey one and monkey two, here's how it's going to work. I'm going to get you and monkey three back to my TARDIS. You are going to stay there. There's an infirmary that I'll give you directions to, and when you get there, you're going to tell the robot to put Jake in a stasis field to stop him dying before I can get back and make sure he's fixed up properly."
"And you're going to rescue Gina? While we do that?" Amy asks.
Rosa sighs, unable to believe the situation she's managed to walk into this time.
"Looks like it. And once I've saved her, I'm going to drag her ass back to Gallifrey, see her punished, and then I'll personally put you three back on Earth where you belong, and where you will stay."
Thanks for reading, please let me know what you thought!
